Ottawa Citizen Nutrition Watch Week 15 - THANK YOU!!!

So blearly eyed I woke up, rolled out of bed and as per my last few months' Thursday morning ritual, logged onto the Ottawa Citizen's Digital Edition to review the Food section's recipes.

I'm absolutely delighted to report that this morning's fare included not only the recipes but also their nutritional breakdowns!

A huge thank you to the Ottawa Citizen for entertaining this request. I know that they are an overworked, underpaid group of folks and that calculating nutritional information only adds to their plates. Sincere thanks to Gerry Nott editor-in-chief and Wendy Warburton for taking the time to listen to our request and respond in a manner consistent with a genuine caring for their readership.

I've always been a ready reader of the Citizen's Food section which thanks to Ron Eade is always fun, fresh and informative and I will continue to read it, but unless somehow the nutritional analyses fall off their pages, I think my work here is done.

Thanks too to all of the readers who may have sent the Citizen emails encouraging them to consider this change. Why not take the 30 seconds or so today and send a simple email of thanks to Editor-in-Chief Gerry Nott, Food Editor Ron Eade and Wendy Warburton by clicking here.

For today's nutritional breakdowns - go buy yourself a paper!

Ottawa Citizen Nutrition Watch Week 14 - Big Food Inc. at Home

As I mentioned, the update from my sources strongly suggest that published nutritional analyses for Citizen recipes will be a done deal - just not for a while longer.

The lesson this week? Just because you cooked it at home doesn't necessarily make it healthier than restaurant fare - you've got to know the numbers to determine whether or not it's healthy and nutritious.

(For those of you who aren't sure what this is all about see this post)

For now, I'll just keep on calculating, but really, if I can still find time to do this with a one week old and 3 kids under 5, what's the hold up?:

Hall's Orchard Fresh Pink Applesauce
(per recipe assuming 2 tablespoons of honey and 12 apples): 1,106 calories, 1g saturated fat, 2mg sodium, 287g total carbs.

PEI Smoked Salmon with Pasta and Lemon Dill Cream Cheese Sauce
(per serving): 701 calories, 14g saturated fat, 794mg sodium, 89g total carbs.

[My note: The headline says don't let Big Food Inc. cook for your kids - this dish isn't any better nutritionally than Big Food's servings. It's salty, it's got nutritionally bereft white pasta and it has loads of saturated fat]

Simply Steamed Island Blue Mussels with 3 Different Flavours
(per serving beer flavour): 656 calories, 4g saturated fat, 1,982mg sodium, 31g total carbs.
(per serving orange curry flavour): 619 calories, 3g saturated fat, 1,949mg sodium, 32g total carbs.
(per serving wine flavour): 655 calories, 4g saturated fat, 2,027mg sodium, 26g total carbs

[My note: And once again, Big Food Inc. doesn't necessarily hold a candle to these high calorie, high sodium dishes]

Organic PEI Field Greens with Apple Vinaigrette and Pumpkin Seeds
(per serving assuming use of 1/8 teaspoon of salt to taste for entire dish): 181 calories, 1g saturated fat, 91mg sodium, 11g total carbs.

Watermelon Salad
(per serving if serving 8 and using 2 tablespoons oil and 1/4 teaspoon salt): 261 calories, 1g saturated fat, 91mg sodium, 52g total carbs.

[All recipes calculated using Mastercook 9.0. Today it took roughly 2 minutes per recipe]

Ottawa Citizen Nutrition Watch Week 13 - Salt to Taste?

As I mentioned, the update from my sources strongly suggest that published nutritional analyses for Citizen recipes will be a done deal - just not for a while longer.

(For those of you who aren't sure what this is all about see this post)

For now, I'll just keep on calculating:

Pasta and Red Pepper Sauce
(per recipe not including noodles): 339 calories, 2g saturated fat, 527mg sodium, 72g total carbs.

Green Bush Beans with Bacon
(per recipe using 1 teaspoon salt): 214 calories, 4g saturated fat, 2,549mg sodium (though some will stay in the water of course), 16g total carbs.

Spanish Rice
(per recipe using beef with no salt added): 1,576 calories, 29g saturated fat, 6,723mg sodium, 125g total carbs (high sodium comes from chicken stock - you can cut this down by actually making your own).

Crepes Aux Pommes
(per crepe): 404 calories, 13g saturated fat, 158mg sodium, 42g total carbs.

Buckwheat Crepes with Salted Cod
(per crepe): 365 calories, 7g saturated fat, 4,399mg sodium, 21g total carbs. The craziest part of this recipe is that the chef also suggests that you add, "salt to taste". Of course draining off soaked cod will drain off much sodium but I'd be shocked if it didn't leave at least 1,000mg per.

Blueberry Corn Muffins
(per muffin): 232 calories, 4g saturated fat, 164mg sodium, 40g total carbs.

[All recipes calculated using Mastercook 9.0. Today it took roughly 2 minutes per recipe]

Ottawa Citizen Nutrition Watch Week 12 - Persistence

As I mentioned last week, the update from my sources strongly suggest that published nutritional analyses for Citizen recipes will be a done deal - just not for a while longer.

For now, I'll just keep on calculating:

West Indian Pork Kebabs
(per recipe): 871 calories, 21g saturated fat, 227mg sodium, 16g total carbs.

Carrot and Couscous Salad
(per recipe assuming 1 cup of couscous and no added salt): 1390 calories, 8g saturated fat, 171mg sodium, 198g total carbs.

Asparagus and Sesame Salad
(per recipe assuming 1tbsp vinegar and 1tsp soy sauce): 250 calories, 4g saturated fat, 343mg sodium, 2g total carbs.

[All recipes calculated using Mastercook 9.0. Today it took roughly 2 minutes per recipe]

Ottawa Citizen Nutrition Watch - Saturday Edition

Here are the nutritional breakdowns for today's recipes:

Potage Parmentier:
(per serving assuming 6 and using 2tbsp butter): 114 calories, 2g saturated fat, 1,117mg sodium, 18g total carbs.

Concombres au Beurre:
(per serving): 93 calories, 4g saturated fat, 598mg sodium, 9g total carbs.

Sauce au Cari
(per tablespoon): 33 calories, 2g saturated fat, 26mg sodium, 2g total carbs.

Oeuffs en Cocotte:
(per serving using 1 egg): 194 calories, 10g saturated fat, 101mg sodium, 1g total carbs.

[All recipes calculated using Mastercook 9.0. Today it took roughly 3 minutes per recipe]

Ottawa Citizen Nutrition Watch Week 11 - Patience

Yeah, yeah, it's a virtue.

The update from my sources strongly suggest that published nutritional analyses for Citizen recipes will be a done deal - just not for a while longer.

Apparently the Citizen is going through some sort of transition or something and that has put this project on the back, back, back burner.

Will get more uppity about things in the early Fall.

For now, I'll just keep on calculating:

Raspberry Shortcake
(per serving): 427 calories, 16g saturated fat, 433mg sodium, 43g total carbs.

Raspberry Cobbler
(per serving): 272 calories, 6g saturated fat, 416mg sodium, 42g total carbs.

Raspberry Sorbet
(per cup): 339 calories, 0g saturated fat, 40mg sodium, 90g total carbs.

Cajun Grilled Beef Flank Steak (Chimichurri to follow)
(per 1.5lbs of flank steak): 1369 calories, 32g saturated fat, 614mg sodium, 10g total carbs.

Chimichurri
(per recipe): 1007 calories, 15g saturated fat, 195mg sodium, 11g total carbs.

Tuna Bruschetta
(per serving): 263 calories, 4g saturated fat, 330mg sodium, 29g total carbs.

[All recipes calculated using Mastercook 9.0. Today it took roughly 2 minutes per recipe]

Ottawa Citizen Nutrition Watch - Saturday Edition

Here are the nutritional breakdowns for today's recipes:

A Proper Tomato Salad:
(per serving assuming 2 tablespoons olive oil): 533 calories, 2g saturated fat, 181mg sodium, 110g total carbs.

Hot Smoked Flaked Salmon:
(per serving): 432 calories, 2g saturated fat, 1,263mg sodium, 45g total carbs

General Blackie's Crunchy Chicken
[I have to split this recipe up into sauce and chicken]
(per serving of just the chicken, no sauce and assuming the 2lbs of chicken absorbed 6 tablespoons of oil): 696 calories, 4g saturated fat, 155mg sodium, 53g total carbs.
(per tablespoon of sauce): 53 calories, 0g saturated fat, 459mg sodium, 12g total carbs.

[All recipes calculated using Mastercook 9.0. Today it took roughly 4 minutes per recipe]

Ottawa Citizen Nutrition Watch Week 10 - And?

Still nothing out of the Citizen and at this point my cautious optimism is starting to wane. If indeed they were test driving a nutritional analysis program then certainly by now they ought to have an impression as to the doability of the initiative for them and given that here I am calculating calories again, I wonder if they've deemed it not doable.

(for a recap - click over here to understand what this is all about)

Certainly from a public health perspective the support for the initiative is there. To date we've heard from the Director of Partnerships at the Canadian Stroke Network, the Canadian Institute of Health Research Chair in Hypertension Prevention and Control, a prominent Canadian dietitian and the Communications Director of Quebec's federation of Kinesiologists who have all weighed in on the value and benefits of the publication of nutritional information with Citizen recipes.

Who's up this week? This week is CHEO's own Dr. Mark Tremblay.

Mark currently leads CHEO's Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group and his biography is impressive to say the least as he's certainly an internationally acclaimed expert in healthy active living and child obesity research, was the Senior Scientific Advisor on Health Measurement at Statistics Canada between 2003-2008, is an Adjunct Professor at the Canadian Research Institute for Social Policy at the University of New Brunswick, Chair of Active Healthy Kids Canada, former Dean of Kinesiology and Professor of Pediatric Exercise Science at the University of Saskatchewan and Executive member of the Board of ParticipACTION.

Mark was kind enough to cc me on his letter to the Citizen,

Gerry Nott
Editor-in-Chief
The Ottawa Citizen
1101 Baxter RoadBox 5020Ottawa, Ont.K2C 3M4

July 16th, 2009

Dear Mr. Nott,

It has recently come to our attention that The Ottawa Citizen is considering providing nutritional information for the recipes it publishes. We are pleased to hear this and feel that it would be a positive addition given the important role that nutrition plays in achieving and maintaining a healthy active lifestyle. We feel that this decision would help readers make healthy, informed decisions about the foods they and their families choose to eat, and could benefit their long-term health. For these reasons, we support the full disclosure of nutritional information for recipes published in The Ottawa Citizen and we commend you for demonstrating leadership in your industry in this regard.

Sincerely,
Mark Tremblay, Ph.D., Director, on behalf of the
Healthy Active Living and Obesity Research Group
Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute

If you haven't yet written the Citizen to politely encourage them on this initiative and thank them for their attention, please take a few moments today to do so. Please send kind words of encouragement to Editor-in-Chief Gerry Nott, Food Editor Ron Eade and Wendy Warburton by clicking here.

Here are today's recipes' nutritional breakdowns (Theme of the day? Salt!):

Vietnamese Pho for Phriends
(per serving if serving 6 with NO added salt): 549 calories, 2gr saturated fat, 6,018mg sodium, 86g total carbs (Perhaps you can serve this to phriends, but I'd avoid serving it to friends)

Paella for Paddling
(per serving if serving 6): 484 calories, 4g saturated fat, 2,821mg sodium, 73g total carbs.

Grilled Chicken and Vegetable Salad
(per serving): 492 calories, 4g saturated fat, 767mg sodium, 31g total carbs.

[All recipes calculated using Mastercook 9.0. Today it took roughly 4 minutes per recipe]

Ottawa Citizen Nutrition Watch Week 9 - Not yet.

I'm not sure what the hold up is but it looks like I'm still at bat for nutrition at the Citizen.

My impression had been that a nutritional analysis program was being test driven last week and hence I figured that this week I wouldn't be spending my early morning calculating calories for Citizen recipes. Unfortunately when I opened up today's paper, nutritional analyses were no where to be found.

(for a recap - click over here to understand what this is all about)

Before I get to this week's fare, I'd like to introduce you to Dr. Paul Boivert. Paul's a friend and colleague from Quebec where he's also the communications director of Quebec's federation of Kinesiologists. Paul practices what he preaches having a penchant for good nutrition and engaging in seemingly insane amounts of swimming (generally 4km or more a day, 5 days a week). Here's what Paul had to say to the Citizen,

"Dear Ottawa Citizen Editors,

I congratulate you for publishing interesting healthy recipes in your newspaper.

Many fast food chains make available the Nutrition facts of their foods on the paper place mats and grocery stores sales food with Nutrition facts of the packaging. These information are important for most consumers for better evaluate the nutritional value of foods.

It is the same thing with recipes. It helps to better evaluate the portions to be served for a family and the value of a meal related to salt, fat and calories content, which matter enormously in a weight management program and health concerns like hypertension and prevention of heart diseases.

These information would be a great value if added at the end of your recipes. Unfortunately, these information are missing in your recipes as published recently.

I encourage you, then, to do so for the benefits of your invaluable readers.

Thanks for your support and the consideration of my request,

Paul Boisvert, Ph.D., PEC-SCPE, kinésiologue
Directeur des communications
Fédération des kinésiologues du Québec
http://www.kinesiologue.com/"

If you haven't yet written the Citizen to politely encourage them on this initiative and thank them for their attention, please take a few moments today to do so. Please send kind words of encouragement to Editor-in-Chief Gerry Nott, Food Editor Ron Eade and Wendy Warburton by clicking here.

Here are today's recipes' nutritional breakdowns:

Lamb rack with chimichurri sauce
(per serving if serving 2): 1,429 calories, 49g saturated fat, 691mg sodium, 6g total carbs

Seared duck breast with heirloom tomato, herbs, corn and focaccia salad
(per serving): 424 calories, 3g saturated fat, 95mg sodium, 51g total carbs

Cashew-encrusted halibut with citrus aioli
(per serving): 971 calories, 10g saturated fat, 172mg sodium, 49g total carbs

Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest asian coleslaw
(per serving if serving 4): 115 calories, 1g saturated fat, 52mg sodium, 8g total carbs

Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest couscous salad
(per serving): 468 calories, 4g saturated fat, 44mg sodium, 51g total carbs

Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest roasted beet salad
(per serving if serving 4): 204 calories, 2g saturated fat, 142mg sodium, 16g total carbs

[All recipes calculated using Mastercook 9.0. Today it took roughly 2 minutes per recipe]

Ottawa Citizen Nutrition Watch Week 8 - Hope!

And now I can report cautious optimism.

While I can't report on the specifics I can say things are moving forward at the Citizen - this despite CanWest's financial difficulties and staff squeezing and consequently a real testament to the Citizen's dedication to their readers.

(for a recap - click over here to understand what this is all about)

My hope is that this will be one of the last times I'll have to post the Citizen's nutritional information for them!

If you haven't yet written the Citizen to politely encourage them on this initiative and thank them for their attention, please take a few moments today to do so. Please send kind words of encouragement to Editor-in-Chief Gerry Nott, Food Editor Ron Eade and Wendy Warburton by clicking here.

So this week, no additional pressure, no additional letters, just today's recipes' nutritional breakdowns:

Chickpea Curry
(per serving if serving 4): 285 calories, 2g saturated fat, 985mg sodium, 38g total carbs.

Avocado Salad
(per serving): 232 calories, 3g saturated fat, 11mg sodium, 10g total carbs

Cedar-Planked Salmon with Watercress Sauce
(per serving if serving 4): 292 calories, 1g saturated fat, 141mg sodium, 13g total carbs.

[All recipes calculated using Mastercook 9.0. Today it took roughly 2 minutes per recipe]

Ottawa Citizen Nutrition Watch Week 7 - Bated Breath

So now we wait.

The Citizen folks have copies of the nutritional program I use to analyze their recipes, have seen how quick and easy it is to utilize and have heard why providing its readers with nutritional information would be beneficial to them.

(for a recap - click over here to understand what this is all about)

Let's hope that the wait will be a short one and herein I'd like to make the Citizen one final offer:

If by chance, for reasons I will likely have difficulty appreciating, the Citizen determines it will be too difficult for them to in fact publish nutritional information with their recipes (even with me doing the legwork), I'd like to suggest that instead of publishing nutritional information with each recipe that they instead publish a link to my blog where I will continue to post nutritional values on a weekly basis. For the Citizen this would mean no weekly calculations and the addition of a single, predictable line at the end of each recipe directing their readers here. For me of course it will be a new source of traffic and given that my blog is entirely ad-free and non monetized (except I suppose for the penny a subscription I'd theoretically get from Kindle), not something ethically challenging to promote.

As part of the campaign I've opted to collect the opinions of influential Canadian health professionals as to the utility and value of nutritional information. My hope is that perhaps some of my blog readers might these posts to help inspire their local papers to consider posting as well. Last week we heard from Dr. Norm Campbell, who among other impressive things is the CIHR Research Chair in Hypertension Prevention and Control, and the week before we heard from Kevin Willis the Director of Partnerships at the the Canadian Stroke Network as to why they felt the Citizen ought to take the initiative and publish nutritional information. This week we've got Rosie Schwartz!

Rosie is a Canadian dietetic treasure and is certainly one of the most well known names in the country when it comes to nutrition. A former columnist for the Citizen and National Post (and many more papers), a best selling cookbook author and a regular feature in magazines from coast-to-coast Rosie and I have had the chance to Tweet at each other regularly and via one such tweet she kindly agreed to weigh in on the matter. Here's what Rosie has to say about the value of newspaper nutritionals,

Rosie's Letter


The issue here is simple. There are tens of thousands of Citizen readers for whom nutritional information would be beneficial. Readers with diabetes, hypertension, obesity, kidney disease and those who simply are concerned about their nutritional health. Those individuals would greatly benefit from having access to the nutritional breakdown of the recipes published by the Citizen.

If you've got a moment, even if you've sent emails before, could you please take the time to drop the Citizen a line again to let them know how thankful you are they're seriously considering this initiative? Please email Editor-in-Chief Gerry Nott, Food Editor Ron Eade and Wendy Warburton by clicking here.

Here's the breakdown for this week's batch of Citizen recipes:

Tennessee Big Boy
(per serving): 459 calories, 14g saturated fat, 114mg sodium, 46g total carbs

Gus and Mary's Strawberries, Balsamic Vinegar and Cream
(per serving): 254 calories, 14g saturated fat, 24mg sodium, 14g total carbs

Spinach Salad with Strawberries and Poppy Seed Dressing
(per serving): 132 calories, 1g saturated fat, 112mg sodium, 8g total carbs

Delicious Strawberry Ice Cream
(per cup): 547 calories, 15g saturated fat, 119mg sodium, 64g total carbs
(by means of comparison, Ben & Jerry's Strawberry Ice Cream per cup has 460 calories, 18g saturated fat, 100mg sodium, 52g total carbs)

[All recipes calculated using Mastercook 9.0. Today it took roughly 2 minutes per recipe]

Ottawa Citizen Nutrition Watch Saturday Edition (and Update)

Had a nice meeting yesterday with Editor-in-Chief Gerry Nott, Wendy Warburton and (I'm really sorry very nice well-spoken guy with glasses, I can't remember your name, I want to say Peter but not positive). While I won't go into the nitty gritty of the meeting I can tell you that I believe the Citizen is sincerely considering the publication of nutritional information and that there are some real logistics to overcome. That said, given that the total time cost of the endeavour would be between 10 and 20 minutes weekly I'm hopeful that the logistics are surmountable.

Here are the nutritional breakdowns for today's recipes:

Sweet Chili-Maple Grilled Chicken Sandwich:
(per serving NOT including marinade): 620 calories, 829mg sodium, 8g saturated fat, 37g total carbs

Classic Mojito
(per drink): 96 calories, zero fat, 28mg sodium, 8g total carbs

Maker's Margarita
(per drink): 193 calories, zero fat, 2mg sodium, 35g total carbs

'Bin'-gria
(per cup): 174 calories, zero fat, 97mg sodium, 16g total carbs.

[All recipes calculated using Mastercook 9.0. Today it took roughly 2 minutes per recipe]

Ottawa Citizen Nutrition Watch Week 6 - Great News?

It's been a very exciting week for the "ask before you order" campaign to encourage the Citizen to include nutritional information for its recipes.

(for a recap - click over here to understand what this is all about)

Last weekend, via the social media wonder Twitter, Ron Eade the Citizen's Food Editor and I had a quick back and forth that culminated in us having a nice chat on the phone about the issue. It became clear fairly quickly that we are actually on the same page about the utility and importance of providing readers with nutritional information and that barring any unforeseen logistical barriers, the publication of nutritional information in the Citizen is something he'd be willing to support.

Then two days ago I received an email from Wendy Warburton who had returned from vacation and she let me know that she certainly agrees in principle that publishing nutritional information would be great for Citizen readers and is hopeful there's a program/way out there to do so that's not overly onerous.

And then yesterday Gerry Nott, the Editor in Chief, invited me to come by tomorrow to see if we can't figure out a way to make this happen!

Kudos to the 3 of them and the Citizen for taking the time to honestly consider this.

As part of the campaign I've opted to collect the opinions of influential Canadian health professionals as to the utility and value of nutritional information. My hope is that perhaps some of my blog readers might these posts to help inspire their local papers to consider posting as well. Last week we heard from Dr. Kevin Willis from the Canadian Stroke Network as to why he felt the Citizen ought to take the initiative and publish nutritional information. This week we've got Dr. Norm Campbell.

Dr. Campbell is really a tour-de-force in the global hypertension landscape and among his many accomplishments he is the Canadian Institute of Health Research Chair in Hypertension Prevention and Control, he chairs the Steering and Executive Committees for the Canadian Hypertension Education Program (CHEP), a program designed to improve the treatment and control of hypertension in Canada. He also chairs the Outcomes Research Task Force for the hypertension recommendations process and is a past president of the Canadian Hypertension Society (CHS), the Canadian Coalition for High Blood Pressure Prevention and Control (now Blood Pressure Canada), and the Canadian Society for Clinical Pharmacology.

Here's what Norm had to say - use the slider to zoom in or the far right button below the PDF to get a full screen (email subscribers if you don't see an embedded PDF then click the title at the top to get taken to the blog),



Again, the issue here is simple. There are tens of thousands of Citizen readers for whom nutritional information would be beneficial. Readers with diabetes, hypertension, obesity, kidney disease and those who simply are concerned about their nutritional health. Those individuals would greatly benefit from having access to the nutritional breakdown of the recipes published by the Citizen.

If you've got a moment, even if you've sent emails before, could you please take the time to drop the Citizen a line again to let them know how thankful you are they're seriously considering this initiative? Please email Editor-in-Chief Gerry Nott, Food Editor Ron Eade and Wendy Warburton by clicking here.

Here's the breakdown for this week's batch of Citizen recipes:

Szechwan and Heritage Beer Sauce
(per tablespoon): 13 calories, trace saturated fat, 22mg sodium, 3g total carbs

Strawberry Smootie
(per cup): 95 calories, trace saturated fat (assuming low fat yogurt used), 28mg sodium, 21g total carbs

Strawberry Cheesecake Mousse
(per serving (assuming 6 and 2 tbsp sweetened whipped cream per)): 441 calories, 25g saturated fat, 140mg sodium, 16g total carbs

Jasmine & Lychee Iced Tea
(per cup): 119 calories, trace saturated fat, 8mg sodium, 30g total carbs

Heritage Baby Back Ribs
(per serving): 1,494 calories, 31g saturated fat, 1,279mg sodium, 102g total carbs

Mill Street Coffee Porter Brownies
(per entire recipe): 5,411 calories, 200g saturated fat, 2,904mg sodium, 636g total carbs

Traditional Dark Lager and Cranberry Salad Dressing
(per tablespoon): 26 calories, trace saturated fat, 7mg sodium, 1g total carbs

Mill Street Coffee Porter Chocolate Cake
(per serving assuming 12): 399 calories, 12g saturated fat, 372mg sodium, 53g total carbs

Southern Sweet Tea Pops
(per pop): 248 calories, zero fat, 9mg sodium, 65g total carbs

Grape Pops
(per pop): 140 calories, zero fat, 9mg sodium, 35g total carbs

[All recipes calculated using Mastercook 9.0. Today it took roughly 3 minutes per recipe]

My CBC interview regarding menu and newspaper calories

Thanks to the crew over at CBC Ottawa Morning for being so kind, courteous and engaging.

For those who might have missed the interview, here it is:

Ottawa Citizen Nutrition Watch Recap!

Welcome CBC Ottawa Morning listeners (and if you're reading this before 7:30am, have a listen to CBC Ottawa Morning this morning at 7:30am!)!

Hopefully you've found your way here to help with the "ask before you order" campaign to have the Citizen include nutritional information in their published calories.

To recap. Roughly six weeks ago I blogged about how I had written a letter to the editor of the Ottawa Citizen asking that they publish nutritional information for its Food Section recipes.

It didn't get published.

I then wrote Ron Eade, the Citizen's longstanding, entertaining and informative Food Editor with the same request and he informed me that it was a budgetary issue and suggested I contact Wendy Warburton the person in charge of making the decision to spend the $16.99 it would cost to buy the software to analyze the recipes.

And so I did.

She didn't write me back.

The next week I offered to do the Citizen's work for them. I offered to use my own software and my own time to analyze the recipes for the Citizen. Ron reported that he'd pass my offer up the chain of command.

I didn't hear back from anyone.

Two weeks ago I emailed the Citizen's Publisher, their VP of Sales and Service and their Editor-in-Chief and I was pleased to hear back from Gerry Nott, Editor-in-Chief. He let me know it was the first he'd heard of the initiative and that he'd discuss our request and my offer with Wendy on her return from vacation on June 22.

Again, the issue here is simple. There are tens of thousands of Citizen readers for whom nutritional information would be beneficial. Readers with diabetes, hypertension, obesity, kidney disease and those who simply are concerned about their nutritional health. Those individuals would greatly benefit from having access to the nutritional breakdown of the recipes published by the Citizen.

Given that I've offered to do all of the Citizen's work for them for free, there really shouldn't be anything stopping them from taking me up on my offer, and today is actually an important day for this campaign as today is the day Wendy Warburton returns from vacation.

On a very positive note, I had a nice chat with Ron Eade this past weekend and it would certainly seem that we're both on the same page with regards to the great importance of societal nutritional awareness.

If you'd like to see nutritional information included in the Citizen, please take a few minutes out of your day and send an email to the Citizen's Editor-in-Chief Gerry Nott, Food Editor Ron Eade and Wendy Warburton by clicking here.

Remember, it was the Citizen's editorial board in their piece on posting calories on menus who suggested that legislation isn't necessary to get restaurants to post calories but rather that consumer demand would do the trick. Let's see if they were right in regard to their own paper.

Bloggers, Twittawa - please consider reposting this today and for those not so savvy with social media - please email this post to your friends.

Who knows, perhaps this campaign can serve as a model for other newspaper changes. Perhaps by getting involved here you'll actually be helping to pave the road to making newspaper published nutritionals the new normal.

Ottawa Citizen Nutrition Watch on Monday's CBC Ottawa Morning!

So we're leaping from social media to real media on Monday morning when following the 7:30AM news I'll be on CBC Radio One's Ottawa Morning.

Tune in to hear about the initiative to have the Citizen provide its readers with nutritional information and about the bizarre concerns of the Dietitians of Canada with NDP MPP Frances Gelinas' private members bill set to put calories on the menus of chain restaurants!

Spread the word!

Ottawa Citizen Nutrition Watch - Saturday Edition

Here are the nutritional breakdowns for today's two recipes - hope you like 'em salty!:

Mama's Meat Loaf:
(per loaf (whole recipe makes 3 loaves)): 2,447 calories, 66g saturated fat, 6,207mg sodium, 117g total carbs

Mama’s Delicious Smashed Potatoes:
(per serving): 386 calories, 12g saturated fat, 634mg sodium, 43g total carbs.

[All recipes calculated using Mastercook 9.0. Today it took roughly 2 minutes per recipe]

Ottawa Citizen Nutrition Watch Week 5 - Waiting

So we're still waiting for Wendy Warburton to get back from vacation.

To recap. Over a month ago I blogged about how I had written a letter to the editor of the Ottawa Citizen asking that they publish nutritional information for its Food Section recipes.

It didn't get published.

I then wrote Ron Eade, the Citizen's longstanding and well known food columnist and blogger with the same request and he informed me that it was a budgetary issue and suggested I contact Wendy Warburton the person in charge of making the decision to spend the $16.99 it would cost to buy the software to analyze the recipes.

And so I did.

She didn't write me back.

The next week I offered to do the Citizen's work for them. I'd use my own software and my own time to analyze the recipes for the Citizen. Ron reported that he'd pass my offer up the chain of command.

I didn't hear back from anyone.

Last week I emailed the Citizen's Publisher, their VP of Sales and Service and their Editor-in-Chief and I was pleased to hear back from Gerry Nott, Editor-in-Chief, that he'll discuss our request and my offer with Wendy on her return from vacation on June 22.

Again, the issue here is simple. There are tens of thousands of Citizen readers for whom nutritional information would be beneficial. Readers with diabetes, hypertension, obesity, kidney disease and those who simply are concerned about their nutritional health. Those individuals would greatly benefit from having access to the nutritional breakdown of the recipes published by the Citizen.

For the next little while I'm going to try to bring you the thoughts of other Ottawans who care a great deal about nutrition.

This week I'd like to introduce you to Kevin Willis. Kevin's a great guy who cares a great deal about nutrition. Kevin's the Director of Partnerships at the Canadian Stroke Network and part of Health Canada's taskforce on Dietary Sodium Reduction.

Here's what Kevin wrote to Wendy about our "Ask before you order" initiative,

"Dear Wendy,

I am writing to urge you to include nutritional information with your recipes. Everyone needs to be aware of the calories, fat, sugar, and sodium in their food so that they can make informed choices. The Citizen has been one of the leading media sources in explaining to the public the links between dietary sodium and blood pressure. Please give your readers the information they need to help them limit their sodium intake and manage their nutrition.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Kevin Willis
Member of Health Canada’s Working Group on Dietary Sodium Reduction
--
Director of Partnerships
Canadian Stroke Network"

Now I realize you may have sent emails already, but if you haven't, or if you've never sent one to the Citizen's Editor-in-Chief perhaps you could drop Mr. Nott a line (and included in the email will be Wendy Warburton) and let him know how you feel about the matter so that he's armed with our thoughts before his meeting with Wendy. Please email them by clicking here.

I know this subject has started to be cross-posted on various blogs and Twitter accounts (thanks!) - please consider reposting again or for the first time.

We ARE building momentum. The first two weeks, almost no-one reposted or tweeted this story. Last week I believe over a dozen retweets and it's now been posted on at least 5 local blogs.

Remember, it was the Citizen's editorial board in their piece on posting calories on menus who suggested that legislation isn't necessary to get restaurants to post calories but rather that consumer demand would do the trick. Let's see if they were right with regards to their own paper. Please consumers - make some demands.

Here's the breakdown for this week's batch of Citizen recipes:

Char-Grilled BC Spot Prawns
(per serving assuming no salt to taste and unseasoned breadcrumbs): 565 calories, 7g saturated fat, 388mg sodium, 21g total carbs (a surprising number of calories for a small appetizer)

Ron’s Favourite Maple-Whisky Planked Salmon
(per serving): 369 calories, 1g saturated fat, 119mg sodium, 28g total carbs.

Pacific Cod Skewers with Whiskey Pomegranate Sauce
(per serving assuming 1/16 teaspoon salt each to taste): 304 calories, 2g saturated fat, 156mg sodium, 12g total carbs.

Grilled Atlantic Squid on Pasta Bundles with Chutney
(per serving): 796 calories, 10g saturated fat, 387mg sodium, 68g total carbs

Dad's Fibre Rich Bran Muffins
(per muffin): 153 calories, 1g saturated fat, 170mg sodium, 25g total carbs

Berry Yogurt Parfait
(per serving): 120 calories, 3g saturated fat, 58mg sodium, 16g total carbs (this one will vary dramatically based on your type of yogurt)

[All recipes calculated using Mastercook 9.0. Today it took roughly 4 minutes per recipe]

Ottawa Citizen Nutrition Watch - Saturday Edition

I've noticed that there are often Saturday recipes as well.

Here are the nutritional breakdowns for today's two recipes:

Braised Beef Ribs with Pomegranate Jus:
(per serving): 447 calories, 10g saturated fat, 838mg sodium, 21g total carbs.

Cretons:
(Not sure how to break this down - makes 2 pounds but is spread. Here's the breakdown for the entire recipe and if anyone makes it, email me and tell me how many cups it made and I can break it down by teaspoon): 3,793 calories, 105g saturated fat, 7,937mg sodium, 137g total carbs.

[All recipes calculated using Mastercook 9.0. Today it took roughly 1.5 minutes per recipe]

Ottawa Citizen Nutrition Watch Week 4 - Progress?

So yesterday I sent a letter to the Citizen and this time I expanded the list of folks to include the Citizen's Editor-in-Chief Gerry Nott along with their publisher James Orban and their VP of Reader Sales and Service Paul Sarkozy. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, here's the letter which will help to explain,

Dear Mr. Orban,

My name is Yoni Freedhoff and I’m a Citizen subscriber here in Ottawa. I’m also a physician with a focused practice that deals with weight and nutrition. Advocacy is something I feel very strongly about and wish that more physicians and professionals would use their voices to help improve the life of their fellow Canadians. My advocacy efforts tend to focus on what I know best – nutrition.

In April I was invited by the Ontario Medical Association to help them with their launch of an initiative to have calories legislated to be posted on chain restaurant menu boards and in school cafeterias. The Citizen, in their editorial on the matter (April 10th) did not support the initiative stating that legislation would not be necessary if consumers simply mounted an “ask before you order” campaign. Soon afterwards I noticed that in the Citizen’s Food section the published recipes lacked nutritional information and I wrote a letter to the editor asking that in the spirit of the “ask before you order” campaign suggested by the editorial board for posting of menu board calories, that I was asking the Citizen to publish nutritional information for its readers.

Nothing came of that letter and so I decided to in fact go ahead and mount the campaign the editorial board suggested.

First though I’d like to explain why. It’s not to vilify specific recipes or nutrients. Certainly life should include indulgent meals from time to time, but it is about providing a level playing field to help your readers make their own decisions as to whether or not the recipes meet their needs nutritionally. The fact is there are tens of thousands of Citizen readers for whom nutritional information would be beneficial. Readers with diabetes, hypertension, obesity, kidney disease and those who simply are concerned about their nutritional health. In fact I’d go further and state that even individuals who don’t currently feel nutritional information to be important, when faced with actual numbers, might well utilize them in their decision making. In publishing this information the Citizen would be doing a great service to its readers and providing the newspaper with a value added that could be promoted both in terms of Thursday sales and in terms of the Citizen’s caring for its readers.

Three weeks ago I emailed Ron Eade with these suggestions and he kindly informed me that it wasn’t his decision to make and that instead I should contact Wendy Warburton as he was concerned regarding the cost involved. I did email Wendy and let her know that the cost would be negligible or even free as the internet has free resources to analyze recipes' nutritional content and there are programs such as the one I use that cost less than $20.

I never heard back from her.

The next week I emailed Ron privately and let him know that I was going to offer to do the work for the Citizen for free. I offered that were the Citizen to provide me with the recipes 24hrs. prior to the copy deadline that I would personally take the time to calculate calories, saturated fat, sodium and total carbs for each and every one. Ron emailed me back to let me know that he’d pass the request on up and again, I haven’t heard a peep.

The campaign to have nutritional information published in the Citizen is slowly permeating local social networks. I blog about it weekly on my blog Weighty Matters and it’s been picked up by at least two other local bloggers and multiple local Twitter users and while I’m not suggesting that the Citizen must simply acquiesce to the request I’m surprised, especially given the uniform support expressed by folks commenting on the initiative, that to date the Citizen has simply chosen to ignore it. While I can’t imagine what it would be perhaps the Citizen has a reason why they would not want to take me up on my offer to provide them with free work that would serve to both enhance their content and empower their readers and I’m writing to you today in the hopes that you, or any of the other folks I’ve included on this email, might be able to provide me with some insight as to the decision making over there at the Citizen.

Yours sincerely,
Yoni Freedhoff

So the good news?

Gerry Nott, the Editor-in-Chief wrote me back to tell me it was the first he'd heard of my concerns and offer and that he'd bring it up with Wendy on her return from vacation on June 22.

I realize you may have sent emails already, but perhaps you could drop Mr. Nott a line (and included in the email will be Wendy Warburton) and let him know how you feel about the matter. Please email them by clicking here and please consider doing so even if you've already emailed in the past (you can even cut and paste your old email from your sent messages folder).

I know this subject has started to be cross-posted on various blogs and Twitter accounts (thanks!) - please consider reposting again or for the first time.

Remember, it was the Citizen's editorial board in their piece on posting calories on menus who suggested that legislation isn't necessary to get restaurants to post calories but rather that consumer demand would do the trick. Let's see if they were right with regards to their own paper. Please consumers - make some demands.

Here's the breakdown for this week's batch of three lonely Citizen recipes (The fact that this week's recipes are supposed to be geared towards diabetics certainly highlights the need for posted nutritionals as many diabetics utilize nutritional information to help manage their treatments):

Basil Lamb Chops
(per serving with low sodium V8 and no added salt): 362 calories, 13g saturated fat, 77mg sodium, 3g total carbs (add in the regular V8 and salt and sodium rises to 551mg per serving)

Bar-B-Q Chicken/Foil Pack
(per serving assuming 4): 274 calories, 3g saturated fat, 553mg sodium, 16g total carbohydrates.

Bar-B-Q Sauce for Diabetics
(per tablespoon): 10 calories, trace fat, 146mg sodium, 3g total carbs.

[All recipes calculated using Mastercook 9.0. Today it took roughly 3 minutes per recipe]